Bishops sued for slander

Three women who spoke out against the Catholic Diocese of Erie are now speaking up in court.

They are suing the diocese, Bishop Donald W. Trautman and retired Bishop Michael J. Murphy on claims of defamation.

The women say the bishops slandered or libeled them a year ago in public statements that Trautman and Murphy made about the women's concerns in the case of a former diocesan priest, Robert F. Bower.

Bower resigned from the priesthood a year ago over his arrest in 1999 on felony charges that he possessed child pornography on his personal computer.

The women came forward in an Erie Times-News article April 17, 2002, to say that they had tried to raise concerns about Bower long before his arrest. They said they met with Murphy in 1982, and that he did nothing to discipline Bower.

The women's suit, filed Wednesday, marks the first time that someone has sued the 13-county Catholic Diocese of Erie in connection with the sex-abuse scandal that started rocking the Roman Catholic Church nationwide more than a year ago.

The women's lawyer said the bishops accused the women of lying. The bishops were responding to comments the women made in the Erie Times-News article, when the women said they met with Murphy 20 years ago to express their concerns about gay pornography that one of the women said she found in Bower's mail when she was his church secretary.

That woman, Sally Beres, said she was fired as secretary two days after the meeting with Murphy. Beres claims that 20 years later, when she aired her concerns about Bower again, the bishops responded by defaming her and the other two women who came forward, Ann Caro and Helen Rusnak.

The women's lawyer, Richard A. Peterson of Greenville, said the suit will focus on the written statement Trautman issued April 21 in which he sharply criticized Beres, Rusnak, Caro and the Erie Times-News. Peterson said the women also claim Murphy defamed them when he told the Times-News on April 17, 2002, that he could remember nothing about meeting with the women about Bower 20 years ago.

"I'm sure I would recall something," Murphy said at the time.

Trautman in his April 21 statement said the women's account of their conversation with Murphy lacked "corroborating evidence."

"The entire treatment of this supposed conversation is one-sided and prejudiced, even though it has been totally denied," Trautman said. "The impression created by this one-sided prejudicial treatment says the Diocese of Erie in the person of Bishop Michael J. Murphy fired a woman who was a whistle-blower. There is no evidence to support such an outrageous claim."

Trautman also said he had never spoken to the women about their meeting with Murphy. "Beres has never written or called me regarding her accusation," Trautman said in the statement.

Peterson said the women will seek damages for loss of reputation and intentional infliction of mental distress.

"If you were accused of lying publicly in that fashion, it is fair to say that you would have a problem with that from an emotional or physical standpoint," Peterson said.

He said he had advised the women, all Erie County residents, to decline comment because of the pending lawsuit. The women in previous interviews with the Erie Times-News stood by what they said regarding Bower, and Murphy's handling of him.

"We wouldn't have filed the case if we didn't think we had a legitimate cause of action," Peterson said.

He said the claims will include elements of libel and slander, and that the women can show they were telling the truth about the meeting with Murphy.

"We believe we have other evidence that would corroborate their testimony," Peterson said.

Diocesan spokesman Gary Loncki on Wednesday said, "We have not seen any official documents; therefore, we are unable to comment."

Trautman previously disputed the women's version of events and characterized their claims as "outrageous." Trautman took over for Murphy in 1990. The former bishop, now 87, lives in Erie.

Peterson said he has experience in pursuing claims in cases of child-sex abuse. He said he has filed such a case in federal court in West Virginia over claims involving a former principal.

In the case against the Erie Catholic Diocese, Peterson filed a one-page "writ of summons" in Erie County Common Pleas Court. The writ notifies Trautman, Murphy and the diocese that the women are preparing a lawsuit, which will include a detailed civil complaint. The women filed the writ Wednesday to beat the one-year deadline for filing such suits.

Peterson said the women will file a detailed complaint only if the diocese requests one. The filing of a complaint will set the case on course for a trial.

"By filing the writ, we are giving the church a chance to open negotiations with us without all the details coming out through the complaint," Peterson said. "But if they request that we file the complaint, then of course all those details are a matter of public record."

Peterson said he believes Trautman never asked to meet with Beres, Caro or Rusnak.

"I have no information that indicates anyone from the church in an official capacity ever contacted any of the ladies," Peterson said.

Beres told the Erie Times-News in the April 17, 2002, story that she gave up going to the church about Bower after she was fired. She said she kept in her attic the pornography she said she found in Bower's mail in 1982.

Beres called the state police about her longstanding concerns in 1999, when state police arrested Bower on the child-pornography charges. The investigating trooper, Lee Formichella, told the Erie Times-News that Beres met with him over her concerns about Bower and pornography.

Beres said she believed she did all she could to tell others about her concerns about Bower.

"I have nothing to hide," Beres said in the article April 17, 2002. "I didn't do anything wrong. I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I tried to fix it. It didn't work."

Bower was never tried in Criminal Court on the allegations that he possessed child pornography on his personal computer. A problem with how the state police handled the computer evidence led the prosecution to dismiss the charges.

District Attorney Brad Foulk said police had enough evidence to charge Bower, and that Bower would have been prosecuted had the problem with the evidence not developed.

Bower, then 69, resigned from the priesthood April 16, 2002, but Trautman did not publicly disclose the resignation until two days later. Bower resigned after Foulk and the Times-News separately discussed the Bower case with Trautman.

Trautman initially said Bower resigned because of "recent publicity" over Bower's 1999 arrest. He later said Bower also volunteered to resign after "disclosures that were made."

Bower was not attached to a specific parish at the time of his resignation. For many years he had been affiliated with the Newman Center adjacent to the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania campus.